Design calendar: January 16-31

After a four-week hiatus bookending the holidays, our design calendar is back.

Architects Without BordersThe Oregon chapter of Architects Without Borders' monthly meeting will feature a presentation on designing for disability in the developing world. Copeland Downs, architecture student at the University of Oregon (Portland campus), will describe his experiences in Ethiopia working with the nonprofit Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development. The meeting will also introduce a new AWB-Oregon focus on the issue of homelessness. AIA Center for Architecture, 403 NW 11th Avenue. 6pm Wednesday, January 22. Free.

William Deresiewicz The MFA in Applied Craft in Design program, jointly operated by the Pacific NW College of Art and the Oregon College of Art & Craft, presents a talk by Deresiewicz, a contributing writer for The Nation and a contributing editor for The New Republic and The American Scholar, devoted to creative entrepreneurship as political practice. Bison Building, 421 NE 10th Avenue. 6:30pm Wednesday, January 22. Free.

Walker Templeton: Creating a New Center of CampusA lecture by Walker Templeton, will focus on designing the renovation and addition of the University of Oregon's Erb Memorial Union with a focus on working with large user groups and integrated sustainable design. University of Oregon, White Stag Block, 70 NW Couch Street. 5:30pm Wednesday, January 22. Free.

Portland 101: Crooked Grids, Tiny Blocks, and the Building of the City How did Portland get this way, with its little square blocks and weird intersections, the funny pronunciations and the bridge ramps to nowhere? Why is it even located where it is? Robert Jordan will guide attendees through 150 years of Portland’s development including stone carvers’ mistakes, upside-down pineapples, mythical tunnels, the naming and re-naming of our streets, and the eras of commercial architecture that have marked our compact and vibrant downtown, as well as the near blitzkrieg effect of the Great Demolition which left us with parking lots where the temples of finance and industry once stood. Architectural Heritage Center, 701 SE Grand Avenue. 10am Saturday, January 25. $20 ($12 for AHC members).

"The Monster Builder" Playwright Amy Freed, a Pulitzer Prize finalists, premieres her new play, a comedy based loosely on Goethe's "Faust," about an egomaniacal “starchitect” called Gregor Zubrowski. "His commanding presence and curious creative process both titillate and manipulate design professionals and patrons alike into submission," the theater's website explains. "After he casually steals a career-making project, two fledgling architects dare to challenge this monster-builder at his own game." Artists Repertory Theater, 1515 SW Morrison Street. Premieres 7:30pm Friday, January 28, continuing through March 2 with performances Wednesdays through Sunday at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2pm. $25.